The Hero Gets the Girl
by DarkestAphelion
Summary: -COMPLETE- Ryou can’t stop wanting what he can’t have... until Yami no Bakura changes his mind. [Dark shounen-ai. Bakura x Ryou. Bakura in college.]
1. Things never turn out

**NOTICE:** Yeah. This chapter hasn't actually changed but the storyline has, so I figured I'd update it with the correct summary. New target is 10 chapters (?). Ryou is Bakura in the anime. And in this story he's sarcastic, pessimistic and kind of pathetic (or so his yami constantly tells him). Bit of a change.  
  
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**Summary:** Ryou can't stop wanting what he can't have. Until Yami Bakura changes his mind. [Shounen-ai BxR. YxA, HxS. Yuugi-tachi in college.]  
  
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**Disclaimer:** Yu-gi-oh was created only by Kazuki Takahashi  
  
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**The Hero Gets the Girl**

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**Chapter 1:** Nothing ever turns out the way you hope it will

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_In all the classic stories, there's a valiant man with a destiny to fulfill that goes through all kinds of hardships and peril. This man will have a company of loyal companions to accompany him in foreign lands and a woman back home that is his reason for fighting. When the hero wins, as he always does, he and his lady will be married and live happily ever after._

_This is what happens in the stories that everyone likes to hear, because the listeners picture themselves to be the hero. But for every hero, there is a company of loyal companions, whose fate you never learn because it's not important. Even if it's a companion who loves the lady most._

_I wonder... if the hero ever wonders if his companions are happy to be just background noise_?

-

I frowned down at my diary. Oh sorry, Yami, my _journal_, because only a girl would keep a diary.

Funny that girls have been on my mind a lot lately. Well, I guess that's not much of a surprise- I am, after all, a semi-healthy and hormonally normal (even if I'm not normal elsewhere) teenage boy. Almost not a teenager anymore- I'm turning twenty next month.

And yet I can't get over a really short, small, insubstantial high school crush.

I had a crush on Anzu for a week, tops. Oh fine, Yami, a month. Only a month! Right after Duelists' Kingdom when we were freshmen.

So I guess it's mainly not that I'm so broken up over losing Anzu- it's the fact that I'm losing out on love, while all my friends are winning. Yuugi has Anzu, Honda has Shizuka... Jou told me that even Otogi and _Kaiba_, of all people, have some kind of twisted relationship.

Ok, so maybe being a bachelor is better than screwing around with Kaiba. But not by much- that tall, dark and trenchcoat thing works for me.

How did I get onto Kaiba? Uh... bad choice of words. Ahem. Here I've been lying on my bed, staring into space for three minutes when I should be pressing my cuff links. Or something like that. I can't believe even Jou knows more about formal dressing than I do... well, at least that's what I'm assuming, since he volunteered to give me some pointers.

I don't have a car. I have a bicycle, which will be reeally useful in getting me to Domino in this tuxedo. But Yami told me not to worry about it, and smirked. So I guess I should be feeling sorry for the poor bastard whose car... ok, whose car is sitting in front of my apartment. With Yami in the driver's seat.

Dammit! Did he _drive_ that thing here? Please tell me he didn't... God. Another day, another lawsuit.

"Hello Ryou," Yami said. "Like the car?" Before I could answer, he dematerialized and the ring appeared around my neck again. I muse about leaving it at home- I do _not_ want him reappearing on the wedding cake, or something like that. But of course, it's a moot point. Where I go, Yami goes. We're part of the same package.

It's a two-hour drive to Domino.

-

During the drive, I have nothing better to do than to think. Pathetically wallow, Yami says, but he's not the one who's in a constant state of mental limbo because of a sadistic, masochistic and homicidal three thousand year old spirit. No, of all our friends I'm the only one who's lucky enough to get_ that_.

Yuugi even gets the good yami. Yami Yuugi is great- he even encouraged Yuugi to ask Anzu to marry him. I can't see my yami encouraging me to do anything that doesn't involve a loss of life or at the very least, blood.

_No_, Yami. Don't be vulgar.

I know I'm being unfair to Yuugi, because he never chose to be the hero, just like I never chose to be the partly psychotic sometimes-villain. He just happens to be the one whose grandfather owns a game shop, who had a rare card, who ended up dueling Kaiba, who Pegasus took an interest in, who has a yami who helps him win duels, who's short and kawaii and looks like a_ porcupine_ with that hair, who Anzu agreed to marry.

Who had Anzu as a childhood friend, to begin with. And a puzzle to wish on. So that made things easy.

No, you don't help me win duels, Yami. You take over and play them for me. That doesn't help my dueling skills.

Anzu is really cute. She's really, really nice. Probably the one who's genuinely nicest, out of the group. Though I think Yuugi would have been, if his yami didn't have objections to me. Anzu is also one of the only girls I've ever known. I went to boy's boarding schools for so long, and I get nervous when I'm even around girls. I guess it's only in shoujo manga that girls go for the thin, girly, quiet types.

Girls like stability. One of the more intelligent things I've heard Honda say, actually. I mean, who doesn't? Friends do. Friends want a friend they can count on, not someone they're always walking on ice around because they're never quite sure if it's really you or if it's an evil Egyptian spirit. A really creepy spirit that no one wants to go near. Yeah... I heard Anzu say all that to Yuugi once.

If I'm this pathetic, it's not my fault.

_Welcome to Domino. Population: 300,000._

-

Yeah, it's official. I'm the worst-looking person here. Yami could have at least stolen a car with all the windows intact.

"Hi, Ryou-kun!" said Anzu, coming over. "You look great! Yuugi will want to see you."

Ah. This could be uncomfortable. Think, Ryou... get her to go away... "Shouldn't you be upstairs... hiding, or something?" I asked. "I thought that no one was supposed to see you until you walked down the aisle."

She laughed. "Well, I don't think anyone's ever been married in a game shop by the groom's grandfather, either," she said. "Might as well toss all the other traditions. Besides, Yuugi couldn't wait to see me!"

"You look great," I said honestly. "Yeah... I'm... going to go find Yuugi-kun."

"Ok!" she said brightly. "If you see him, tell him that Kaiba-kun said the flowers are going to be put in the back, and he should be here in about five minutes."

Kaiba's delivering the flowers. What next.

Anzu looks really stunning today. More than usual, in that tight-fitting wedding dress. So does Shizuka, for that matter, over by Honda and Jou, who can't seem to realize that his little sister is legally an adult, now, judging from the way he's policing Honda. He's telling them about his latest rendezvous Mai, I'm sure... now _there's_ a looker.

Suddenly I can't take it anymore and I run to the back, hiding in one of the bathrooms. And then I cry for the first time in years. Just when I think I've gotten over it all.

Yami appears. Great, going to rub salt in the wound? But instead, he just frowns at me, and rips off part of my dress shirt- in the back, where the long coat covers it. He runs the sink water hot and dips the fabric in, and rubs it over my eyes.

"Stop it," he says. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself."

Is he being... thoughtful? I can't believe it, and I stare at him. He looks at me in disgust and dematerializes.

Outside I can hear the kitchen boys banging on the locked door.

-

They slip the rings on each other's fingers. And... they kiss. Very sweet, I guess. I'm not really paying attention. I'm listening to Yami's account of how he poisoned an entire Arab caravan and what he did with the bodies, and for once I'd rather listen to him than to what's going on around me. Mechanically, I stand when everyone else stands, and clap when the shop fills with the sound of cheering.

I follow the crowd as everyone rushes to the front of the game shop, and the happy couple jumps inside a new sports car that Kaiba commissioned and Jou... decorated. Malik and Ishizu are cramming the last of the suitcases into the tiny trunk.

_What the hell is he doing here?_ Yami growls.

Suddenly I feel Yami taking control, and I fall into my soul room. _YAMI!_

-

When I come to, I'm lying on my back in the middle of the street, and Kaiba is standing over me, slapping my face.

"Stop that, Seto-kun," said Otogi, taking one of his hands. "You're going to break something."

"He already broke enough things!" said Kaiba. "Of course, that Yuugi and his girlfriend wouldn't want to persecute them." He sighed as he stepped back and let Otogi take his arms. "I knew it was a bad idea to invite both of those Egyptian freaks."

"What did I do?!" I shouted, opening my eyes. "Yuugi! Is he all right? What about Anzu?"

"Fine, fine," Otogi said soothingly. "They're all just fine."

"What happened?" I yell.

Yuugi comes up. His hair is somewhat crushed. "Ryou-kun! You're awake!" Behind him is Anzu. Her beautiful wedding dress is caked with dirt from the street. Looking around, I see that Malik is lying on the once-new sports car, holding his side and groaning as blood seeped through his fingers.

"You... er, your yami... saw Malik Ishtar," Otogi explained. "You could say he wasn't exactly happy to see him. You... he... jumped him and pulled out a pair of knives and so Malik fought back..."

I groaned. Apparently Yami has yet to get over all those times that Malik sent him to the Shadow Realm. "Yuugi, Anzu... I'm..."

"We know it's not your fault," said Yuugi. "And no one got seriously hurt, except maybe Malik, but he doesn't blame you either."

Right. Sympathy. Like_ I_ needed that from _them_. "I ruined your wedding," I said. I got up and dusted myself up as best as I could, as they offered a thousand condolences. I didn't want to hear any of them. I didn't want to see any of them.

"I'm sorry. Have a good honeymoon."

I got into my stolen car and drove away.

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**A/N:** Please, review... !


	2. Romance is a stop I missed

**A/N:** REPOSTED on 9.9.2004 for changes to the end of the chapter.

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**Chapter 2:** Romance is a stop that I missed somehow

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_That was a bit sudden, don't you think?_ said Yami as I cruised down the highway. _Could of given them your wedding gift, at least._

I slammed on the brakes for a split second before I realize that there are _very fast_ cars behind me. Damnit! That stained-glass panel took me months to get right. Almost cut off my finger working on that damn thing. And I won't be surprised if it's broken after riding in this junk heap for three hours. Why didn't you remind me _earlier_, Yami!

_It was your responsibility to remember that_, he says mockingly. _Oh... did little Ryou-chan get his feelings hurt again?_

Shut up! I grip the steering wheel tighter. Why the hell are you so _talky_? I like it better when you're being normal and I don't hear from you for a few weeks at a time, even if I don't know what you're doing with all of that spare time. Siccing your Man-Eater Bug on people, or something. Using trap cards to cause small "natural" disasters.

Fun, fun... 

Ah jeez, stop. If you start telling me about all the crimes you've committed I'm going to start feeling like I have to do something to stop them, right? Why don't I just let you go on with your population control and whittle down the number of people in Osaka by a few dozen a year? Then we're both happy.

Also, you forgot to turn off the stove this morning.

-

The landlady is banging at the door. Wondering, no doubt, about this nice little girl-boy who just moved in and who is taking a nap when he should be in class. Ah yes, Mrs. Tanaka, I had to find a new place to live after my old apartment burned down, even though this place is about a twenty-minutes drive farther away from the university and I don't have a car. Oh, Osaka has such a nice public transportation system, too bad they don't have a schedule that fits my life.

By the time I get out of bed and open the door, there's no one there. On the doorstep sits a red plastic pan and a cutting of meadow rue. Taking the pan in arm and flowers in hand I shut, latch and lock the door again. I put them down on my coffee table, which also serves as a kitchen table and counter in my one-room flat.

Yami picks up a stem and chews on it. _Mm, the flavor of the country._

Yami, I think those are poisonous.

That makes them taste better.

He'll probably put them back in the vase... when he's done with them... so I turn my attention to the nikujaga that will conveniently be my lunch, supper and breakfast tomorrow if there's enough. Typical motherly kind of meal, not something a young bachelor like myself would take the time to make. Ramen is more of my forté.

Well, I might as well read over what the lessons were today. Taking a plateful of potatoes, because Yami will be testy if I eat the meat before he's done with his flowers, I sprawl out on my mattress. It's lucky, really, that I'm in such a good mood today, or I wouldn't be able to concentrate. So then... d sub y over d sub x equals P(x) Q(x)y R(x)y squared... so if it's not in the second degree...

_What are you doing?_ asks Yami. I guess he's not hungry right now.

Riccati equations, I tell him. Fun stuff. Much better for you than tormenting people with your deck... do you even know algebra? But I guess the Egyptians didn't invent that.

_You are a very bad specimen of humanity_, he says. _A healthy male of your age should be out chasing girls, like your nice little friends Jounouchi and Honda-kun._

I'm not very interested in girls right now, Yami. Seeing as how whenever one takes an interest in me, you manage to scare her away, I don't see why you're concerned... I mean... God, if I ever brought a girl home you'd probably rape her or something.

Suddenly my potatoes are overturned onto the floor as Yami yanks me up by the collar and drags me out onto the tiny balcony. Fleetingly, I think how the people on the street must see a guy hanging onto the railing for dear life while simultaneously trying to fall over the edge.

_Insolent, insolent hikari_, he mutters. Why the hell is he so fucked off? Oh yeah, me, his stupid little hikari.

Well, you know what, Yami? Bring it on! Throw me off the balcony, because you know better than I do that I'd never be brave enough to jump myself. Sure, I would have picked a more dramatic setting... leaping off the 91st floor of the Kaiba building, maybe... but this'll do.

Yes! I _want_ to die by landing in a small, filthy side street in the seediest part of Osaka on top of a small stall of leeks!

_Don't be an idiot_, says Yami. So I guess I'll live another day after all. Suddenly he pulls me back onto the balcony floor, onto his feet while he stands there glowering at me. It's like staring at the blade of a guillotine.

I close my eyes, but they snap back open when I feel a very warm, moist yet undeniably appealing yami kissing me.

Yami smirks and drops my shoulder, and I fall back hard enough to crack a bone against the concrete. He is... a total enigma... isn't he? He... is... um... well, he... jeez. Ok. Right. This is the next level in tame-a-hikari cruelty such as can only be practiced by dear Yami. What an ass.

Open the fucking door! Christ, what the hell are you doing, Yami? It's freezing! I bang against the sliding door, ineffectually, a few more times. Figure of all the things in this crappy apartment that work, it's this. Ow. Ouch.

I guess he's pretty happy that he left me out here, and he thinks he gave me plenty to think about. Only thing is... he did. Because as weird and sadistic as Yami is, he's never been that cruel before. Not even in eleventh grade when Yuugi and his yami had a... relationship. Because Yami doesn't touch romance, or desire, because of all the ways he likes to manipulate people, I've never known of him using anything even faintly connected with love.

Yami doesn't like people. I'm like him in that way. Ugh. I guess it's very funny then that we're bound to each other for eternity or until I die. Since I know he's not going anywhere.

People, people, people. Didn't go to Domino University or somewhere nearby. Went to Osaka so I could be away from the people that cared about me, so that I don't have to care about them.

Yami is like me, but he's the better... worse?... side of me. Maybe Yami Yugi is right and he's an incarnation of evil, but at this point, from where I'm standing, that's better than being me. Evil, yes, but undeniably... cooler. For lack of a better word.

I am, unfortunately, really, really human. And apparently, subject to Stockholm syndrome.

He is beautiful, but never real.

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**A/N:** Er, I have no idea what the author's notes used to be for this chapter.


	3. Comfort from a dark shadow

**A/N:** Another chapter... finally, I know... I had Ryou-mind-block . but I'm ok now. This chapter probably sounds different from the others, though. Ugh. I have trouble with that.

Also with tenses. Has that been bothering any of you?

I might do a Seto fic soon. Because I realized that I've been on for two months and I don't have any fics on my favorite character (yeah, the Bakurae must, regrettably, take second place...)

_Thank you to EVERYONE who has put me on favorites/author alert lists!!!_

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**Chapter 3:** Comfort from a dark shadow has no place in the world

-

Yami hands me a blanket with a scowl. Right, so he's going to yell at me. Very... non-hypocritical. Or something like that.

"You're pathetic."

I'm surprised to find that after a night of freezing my ass off in my very, very thing sweater, I'm surprisingly calm. Or maybe that's just me slipping into the first levels of a comatose stage. Either way he isn't going to get a rise out of me today. Um... word... stop that snickering, my hentai mind.

Oh wait, that's Yami. Much, much better...

"Ah, the throes of young love. Haven't seen this for three thousand years..." He smirked. "You are a very, very odd young soul. I wonder if the cheerleaders know you've fallen for your ever-present tormentor." Damn. Does he have to... look so... hell, when I wear that outfit, _I_ don't look like that.

"Yami, I'm going out. I don't need to miss another session of classes this week."

He raises an eyebrow. "What's this, no fight today?"

I snorted as derisively as I could, under the circumstances. "Fuck you. I have a life outside of my mind, you know." I still can't feel my toes, but at this point, I would rather contemplate frostbite in a university lobby than warm them in front of the heater with him.

He frowns, and then dematerializes. Wait... did I just win a fight with him?

I'm four seconds out the door when he reappears behind my head and yanks my neck back into the flat. Fortunately, my body and head follow it. I land on my back with a sickening crack. Three years of working part-time at a hospital have taught me that that sound is usually accompanied by broken bones, if not paralysis...

"Good. Now that your back is broken, you will listen to me."

He makes himself comfortable on my stomach, legs straddling my waist. If I didn't feel like my bones were being dipped in acid, this would have been a _very_ uncomfortable position for me.

After all, I'm the only one out of my friends who's never gotten laid.

"Why Ryou," he murmurs. "Don't feel bad. After all, I'm a three thousand-year-old virgin."

What the hell? I snap my head up to stare at him, but the pain makes me lower it again. Damn. He's a virgin? Well, right, he must be lying... and it doesn't make me feel better, if that was his intention.

"Do I have your attention now?" he asks.

Well, he certainly does. I nod mutely. He sighs with an almost-smile, and then slaps me across the face.

"IDIOT!"

Huh? Last time I checked, he was about as happy as an Egyptian spirit could be. I don't say this, of course, because from the look on his face, there's about an hour of lambasting coming up. I choke down a scream as he hauls me up by the front of the shirt.

"I was not a patient person the last time I was alive," he hisses. "Being sealed in a necklace for three thousand years has not increased that virtue and ten years with _you_ is enough! I thought maybe the sight of your crush with a ring would knock some sense into your head, but apparently not! You... are... pathetic."

He punctuates each word with a slap. "Yami!" I protest. He's usually very careful about not doing too much harm to my body.

"You are too quiet," he growls. "You watch life, but you don't tend to your own. Someday you will wake up and find that you are an old man and still a bachelor, and even I will have left you!"

"Yami! Uh... what...?"

"Get over yourself," he says.

"Everyone that I know has a better life than me!" I retort. "So why should I? Because a gold-obsessed kleptomaniac told me to?"

His eyes bore into mine as he slams me back onto the wall. He is very, very angry but I really don't care. If I die, I die. And he'll be gone from my life.

"Wrong, hikari," he says. "You'll never be free from me."

"You're lying!" I scream at him. Damn, he's taking the easy way out again! "Yami, don't you dare go away now! YAMI!" But it's no use, of course, and I slump down to the floor.

It takes me the better part of an hour to crawl into the bathroom, where I had three years of purloined medical supplies ready just in case Yami ever tried... what he did today. My neck is a mess of bruises, and my hair is more pink than white.

And I don't even want to think about my back.

I need a hospital, but hospitals will ask questions that I'm not in the mood for. And I guess it's my masochistic side that lays me down in bed, on my stomach, that closes my eyes even as I think to myself how I'm just asking for a coma. I won't be able to show my face in public for weeks, so I might as well take a chance on the rest of me.

For ten years, what I've wanted is not so much my yami out of my head, but to just... rest.

-

Evening comes and I don't want to sit up, because I know what it'll feel like. So, naturally, while trying to knock off the alarm clock, I fall out of bed.

I tumble to the bamboo floor with a thunk, but it's not so bad... then I notice Yami sitting on the bed looking at me, and I realize why.

"You fixed my back," I accuse.

He shrugs. "Better than letting you go to one of those... hospitals... and have your fellow idiots ask you idiotic questions that you won't be able to answer without putting... yourself... in jail. It's an interesting predicament you've always got, isn't it?"

"You put me into it," I mutter. Nice Yami equals... very strange. No, actually... it probably equals scheming.

"I'm not scheming anything against you," says Yami, like he read my mind. Heh. "But I do think that now, you are ready to talk with me."

He sighs again and moves to the floor, sitting next to me and pulling my head onto his lap. "There's a reason that I'm always trying to get the Millennium items," he says. "They shine with the blood of my kin..."

-

When he is done, I can only stare. Somehow, he's kept this from me for ten years. Well, I guess it wasn't that hard, considering that I've never stepped foot into his soul room. His soul room... damn, what that's got to look like. I shudder and he looks at me in question.

"Nothing, Yami," I say. I think he's expecting more, so... I'll give it a shot. "Sorry."

"For?" Apparently, he's not going to make this easy. Typical.

"Sorry for being a brat, okay?" I seethe. Control... freak. "Sorry for feeling sorry for myself. Better?"

He smirks. "Yes, now that you mention it."

All right. So, apparently, he's going to be exactly like before. Someone I can live without, even if he did fix my back. Because he broke it in the first place! Hell, I hope he wasn't expecting me to just feel sorry for him after that story. I thought maybe he meant something by it.

"There's nothing in the house for dinner," I say as I get up. "I'll be back in half an hour."

He doesn't stop me this time, but I pause of my own accord as I go to close the door. He's still sitting there, an indescribable expression on his face. I feel like there's something I should say... act more grateful, maybe, but I don't. He opens his mouth.

"Hikari. I was being impatient. It took thousands of years of solitude to figure out what was wrong with me."

"It's all... right..." I say. I really do need to get going before the market closes. "I'll see you soon, all right?"

He looks almost spurned. "I didn't want you to be like me," he says as I close the door. I wonder briefly if he hadn't meant for me to hear that, but it's obvious to dismiss the thought. Yami does everything deliberately.

I'm downstairs when I realize that I never asked him why he kissed me.

-

**A/N:** Ohh... review, please! You make me happy when you do XD. I'll look at your stories... actually, I've been meaning to do that but I've never had enough time, bah... .

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..( ..)..............................-- Plot bunny. Another one...


	4. Hell's choice trades away

**A/N:** This chapter took a really long time to write! In other news... reviewer responses at the end.

.t.t.t.

**Chapter 4:** Taking hell's choice trades life away for a dream

A week later, my bruises are healing and I can step outside without strangers staring at me... too much. With a shock of white hair at my age, it's not something that I can avoid altogether. Nosy bastards should mind their own business... even the landlady is starting to bitch at me for not paying the rent on time.

Yami hasn't talked to me much lately, and I'm not about to ask him about that kiss. Eh, so maybe he's reverting back to the way he was before... before Anzu's wedding, I guess. Now that I think about it, that's really when all this shit started. I think.

"You think too much," Yami tells me as he appears on the floor next to me.

It's a nice change, him being nice to me. I could get used to this, if only I could figure out _why_ he's acting like this. I assume this is an act, because him lying to me for the last ten weeks makes more sense than him lying for the last ten years. I know I can't put anything past him because, well, he's _Yami_, but wouldn't it be nice, eh?

"All right," I say with a sigh, as I lean back onto his chest. Hn... I think I like it when he doesn't button up his shirt.

_Shit_ that hurt. "Yami, what the hell was that for?" I yell at him as he leans back. Bastard, push me off like that and I'll break my collarbone.

"What happened to you?" he growls. "You used to stand up to people. Hell, you used to stand up to _me_."

What? "The hell are you talking about?" I cry. "I thought you were enjoying that as much as I was."

He raises an eyebrow. "Oh, really... and just how much would that be, hikari?"

Damn, he doesn't miss a thing. Time to think on your feet, Ryou... or on your stomach, rather. I push myself up to lean on my arms, and glare back at him. "You know, I think Yuugi was right about you, after all. Even when you're being nice, you're still a bastard."

His eyes narrow dangerously. "When," he says slowly, "did you run to _Yuugi _about me?"

.t.t.t.

I smirk at Yami's back. He's steaming on the porch, too dangerous for words. And I was the one who so royally pissed him off, by not telling him about my conversation with Yuugi. I'm actually enjoying not being beaten down for once, and oddly enough, I think Yami is enjoying himself too.

Despite that my life is no better than it was yesterday, I'm the most cheerful I've been for a very long time. Months, if you count odd encounters with Yuugi-tachi, not that their brand of cheeriness is just right for me. And, many years... since I've been this happy by myself.

But then I'm not by myself. Yami is with me, as always. The last time I was happy was before he came into my life.

"You don't have to sound so miserable about me," Yami says through my head. He sounds definitely annoyed, if not as pissed as before. Ha. "I'm not some great tragedy wreaked on your life."

"Yes you are," I retort. "Yami, you might as well stop being nice. Nice can't erase our past."

"I'm sure," says Yami.

He draped his arms around my shoulders, and I smiled. Always the one to make up by sex- not that that's ever happened before... damn, well, not yet anyway. I can always hope. Either way I figure the fastest way to get _there_ is to make up right now. I glance up at him, his arms not at all blocking my face.

"Do you want to know what Yuugi told me?" I asked him.

He looked casually bored as hell. "I'm sure that in all your long conversations about me, he only told you one thing of value." I rolled my eyes. He gave me a look, all-right-what-did-the-little-twerp-say.

"He _told_ me," I said pointedly, "to not make the same mistake that he did. To... not, fall in love with a spirit."

Yami nodded slowly. "Interesting... and what's your opinion on that?" He looked subtly different then, somehow, and the air felt hyper-tensed.

What? I blinked and shrugged. To be honest, I didn't really know. "I don't actually see anything wrong with it," I told him. "As long as you're not making fun of me for it... don't give me that look, you know you do. But, yeah, I don't see anything wrong with it."

"Well." He looked at me quizzically. "Can I ask you a question- when was the last time you talked to another person?"

I didn't get it. "Um, I think I was yelling at Mrs. Tanaka yesterday morning."

He rolled his eyes, probably because I'm such a dumb hikari. "No, Ryou. I meant, when was the last time you talked to someone, for any lengthy period of time, because you wanted to?"

"Yuugi last week," I said quickly. "There's something wrong with that?"

Yami smirked. His smirks are getting to be more like smiles every day, not that I'm about to tell him that. "Yes, there is," he murmured, leaning towards my ear. "I don't want you taking his advice about me," he said. "Your spirit is different from Yuugi's. And I am not the same kind of soul as Atemu."

"Atemu?" I asked. He frowned, but that swept off his face quickly with a shrug. I decided to leave it at that- after all, who wants to know as much as Yami does about that whole Egyptian-spirit community? There are much better things to do with a pleased Yami around- such as kiss, of course.

I knew he wasn't expecting anything, so I leaned my neck up, looking at him backwards. I tilted my head to the side and flicked the tip of my tongue out to touch his lips. Yami shivered, almost imperceptively, as I licked a soft trail from his lips down to his chin.

He wasn't complaining, so I turned around to face him. Abruptly, he leaned back until he was sitting on the floor, pulling my waist so I straddled his hips. He grasped my hair gently and pulled my face centimetres from his. In an almost-ignorable flicker, I _felt_ rather than saw a change in the air.

"Yami?" I asked. He didn't respond and I pulled away, shaking my head to clear it. All I saw now was my flat, just as before. There was nothing wrong with my eyes, but it felt as though it took a long time for my brain to make my eyes work.

He shook his head at me. "Have you been living in our head too long?" he asked. "If anyone was watching us, they'd see you hugging thin air. Because, you know, you are..."

I frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?" I asked. Then I realized, and fairly leapt off his lap- "Yami! What do you mean, if anyone was watching us?"

He laughed a faintly horrible laugh. "Just hypothetical, hikari," he said.

My heart was still racing, though, and it took a long time for me to calm down. Yami sat there patiently, watching me- he didn't go back into the ring, just sat there studying my face. When it felt to me like I was beginning to get back to normal he approached again, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of my trousers to pull me to him.

This time the kiss had no gentleness, but was all fire and edge. He pulled me on top of him and as my eyes closed, I heard him whisper, "You are mine."

.t.t.t.

When I returned from class, the flat was dark in the changing light. It would be colder here soon. Strange... Yami had started to make a point of turning on a light for me- he knows that I don't like being in the dark. He's probably still grinning from this morning, when he pounced me as I was walking out of the bathroom and disappeared five minutes later after saying, "Now, go take a shower. You'd better make it a cold one."

He thinks he's so funny, since it's obvious who's in control in _this_ relationship. But I don't mind- well, not so much since I talked to Yuugi again.

Yami walked in. So he's been outside while I was out... I looked at the flashing digital clock on the floor. 5:00- and here I thought he was a late riser. More likely he's been stalking around for the whole six hours.

"You may be a little nicer to me," I commented, "but that doesn't mean you're not still contributing 200% to Osaka's crime rates, does it?"

He smiled, disturbingly. "What you don't know doesn't hurt you," he said.

He looked tired, though, and I knew he was going to get very bitchy soon unless I let him sleep. Serves him right for staying out all evening.

I let him go, though, watching as he blinked slowly while walking out of existence. My mind was on what he had just said. _"What you don't know doesn't hurt you."_ Yami's always been like that, sure, but I have this kind of suspicion that he's working that now.

Yuugi warned me... I don't know how the hell he figured out that _anything_ was up. And now I'm wondering if Yami is just toying with me, because _that _sure as hell wouldn't surprise this bitter heart. I don't know why he started kissing me, and I don't know why I still haven't stopped him...

Hell. I shook my head as I started to make breakfast for myself. This whole thing's always been crazy. What's the difference between seeing spirits and falling in love with them? It doesn't really matter.

_Who cares_, what if anything Yami is planning, if I've never been happier.

.t.t.t.

**A/N:** I'm sorry this chapter was so late... and now that I re-read it, it doesn't seem as good as I had thought. I was trying to make things move along a bit more, but this is getting kind of weird... I did take time to sort of plan the next few chapters, so I should say... this fic is getting darker. Well, Ryou's getting happier but the fic is getting darker.

If that doesn't make sense, it will soon... or eventually, anyway. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't tie up from chapter to chapter. The Yuugi stuff will make sense next chapter, I promise... because of a nice appearance!

I can't believe they took away the special characters...

.t.t.t.

**Review responses from ch. 3:**

I really can't do this every chapter. I could try, but that would put a kink in the fic-uploading schedule and this fic is driving me crazy enough as it is. So...

**Yami-love OB1:** Thank you! Especially for the repeat reviews!

**Dark Magician Girl / Hikaru:** I'm glad it's different grin I've seen you around... other review pages... thanks for all the feedback!

**Elle-Fate2x1-2:** Thanks! I hope this chapter did a bit more for the "what's happening between them" part.

**Celeste Rose:** hugs chibi-Seto plush Aww, thanks! I'm glad you like the pace, I was afraid it'd be too slow compared to most fics.

**colleen:** This chapter is almost... well, I'm not really sure how long it is because and my computer are saying different things. But it's definitely longer than all but the first, I think. I'm used to writing one-shots!

**Pork Steak the Grande:** Thanks... Ryou gets happier frowns but hey, is that a bad thing? ... eh, maybe. We'll see. And, er, thank you Gandalf, too...

**Violent-Tendencies:** Wow. Good questions. Everyone go look at the questions! Lol. Anyway, answers in the order you asked them:

1. That will be revealed in the next chapter... kind of. This story doesn't really get into detail about it, but you can bet they had a romantic relationship!  
2. No, he's still around... just not around Yuugi. If I remember next chapter I'll get into this more at the end.  
3. Ah. Can't tell you yet (getting monotonous, isn't it?), it's something you find out near the end (I think!). But just think about Bakura's flaws... specifically how he's... behaving... in this relationship.  
4. I assume you mean the niceness, in which case the answer is yes. Yes in relation with #3. And he's being nice deliberately.

And yeah, Ryou's going to get happier. But this fic is definitely going down dark by the end.

**Shella:** Wow, I'm glad to see you came back to the story. And I'm truly honored by your opinion.

.t.t.t.

**A/N:** I'm looking forward to ch. 5! It should be up on Friday, but don't expect any promises! Well, er, heh... if you'd consider taking a click on that silly periwinkle button down there...


	5. Cold emotions at the core

**A/N:** Success! Most coherent chapter yet. I hope, hope there aren't any inconsistencies... I couldn't find any, but I'm not good at looking closely XP 

Thank you for your kind reviews. ::huggles Dark Necrophear plush::

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**Chapter 5:** Cold emotions at the core of body heat

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I wondered if it was really that obvious that something was wrong with me. Yuugi was so concerned, I was almost touched, but unlike him I don't see the _problem _with my situation. Yami is keeping something from me, but he's always like that. I can trust him as much as any _"real"_ person. He's as real as the rest of them, to me.

Part of the problem, maybe? I don't give a fuck. It chafes at my skin how Yuugi and the rest of the world think I'm nuts- he's too polite to say anything but I've been around him long enough to tell. He thinks he's got life on a chain because he's the king of games.

King's sidekick, more like it. Yami Yuugi is the one who deserves the glory, if anyone. He acted too noble to claim it. Bet he didn't really feel that way, probably wanted to kick the little pisser halfway to America.

Ha. This is impolite of me, after all. Yuugi came all the way up to see me and I'm tuning out his prissy voice so I can think about what a little shit he is.

"Ryou-kun?" Yuugi frowned at me. Eh, time to pay attention. "Are you listening?"

"Sorry," I edged out. "I'm just a little sleepy. This semester's class schedule is getting to me." He believes me, the idiot, the way he's smiling sympathetically. Or maybe he knows I'm lying and doesn't make a point of it. That's just hypocritical enough for him.

"Like I was saying...." He continued. "I don't think I was very clear on the phone two weeks ago, but I'm really... concerned about you. Whenever I talk to you, it seems like you're not all there. Yami says that your other self has been more active around lately and I don't..."

He paused and stared up at the ceiling. "It feels like there's something wrong, and I don't understand."

He's nice. Really. Staring back at his round little face with those saucer-shaped eyes, I just have to keep telling myself that.

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I smirked at him. Seemed to have picked up that habit from Yami. "We've never been close, Yuugi-kun," I said. "Not for a very long time, in any case. There a reason you think I'm behaving strangely, when you aren't around to observe my behavior most of the time?"

He literally shrieked. "That's it! That's it," he said, pointing at me and fairly leaping off the floor, though he set his pinprick ass back down anyway. "That's how the spirit talks! He's taking over your body, isn't he? Just like the other Malik did during Battle City!"

Huh? I rolled my eyes. "No score, Yuugi-kun," I said. "Nice try, but that's pretty off the mark... I mean, I hadn't even thought of that. Not all evil yamis have the same crooked plans."

Yuugi shrank. Pretty amazing- one of these days he's going to do that and disappear. "Sorry," he said. "But you know... if the spirit of the ring _was_ planning anything, you wouldn't find out until it was... too late, would you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Kind of like you didn't realize that doing_ your _yami was a bad idea until after the fact?" Cold, I admit, but no more so than I usually acted these days- and I'm still showing restraint. I just hoped that he hadn't caught my slip- emphasis alluding that I had been doing mine? Haha.

He frowned. "You're not going to get me with that, Bakura," he said. So the little guy's angry. "You don't even know what happened to me."

"So are you going to enlighten me, then?" I asked. Now here was a chance.

Yuugi looked at me strangely again. "That's how the spirit of the ring talks," he said slowly. "I won't tell _you _anything."

I heard a door opening, and Yami stuck his head out of his spirit room and snorted at Yuugi. _Tell the little bastard to can it_, he yawned. _If I want to talk to him, I'll make sure he knows it's me, and in no uncertain terms. I don't play with my food until right before I eat it._

I made a face at the mental image, and Yuugi screwed his forehead in confusion. "Yami says... if he wants to talk to you he'll tell you it's him."

"I don't trust him," Yuugi said. "And I'm not sure I trust you anymore, either."

"So leave," I retorted, indicating the door. See if he really does.

He leaned up, then wavered and sat back down on the floor. He was frowning to himself and his eyes were blinking rapidly- I could tell he was talking with his yami, because he always gets all funny when he does. I, being more refined, can just zone out as I please. I haven't seen that in a long time. When did the other Yuugi get back in Yuugi's head?

"I'm not giving up on you just because you want me to," Yuugi says finally.

"I see," I drawled out. "So how long did it take for you to think of that response?"

I'm pushing, I know, but I want him out before he can make me feel sorry for _him_- again. There's no reason I should be feeling bad for him. Better to take out all the feeling in my shell than do that, when he's condescending enough to pity me... hell, do I even know what I'm saying?

"You're still siding with your yami," accuses Yuugi. "Don't... well, look, it's fine to do that, Ryou-kun but I just... think that maybe since university started... well, the gang hasn't really all gotten together..."

"You mean I haven't gotten with the rest of you," I interjected.

He nodded slightly. "Well... do you have friends in Osaka, Ryou-kun?"

I threw down the pillow I had been playing with before I realized what I was doing. And then I had to explain it- "Why the hell are you asking that?" I almost cried. "Kami, of all the prying..."

Yuugi winced- doesn't like it when people curse. He should hear my mouth lately. "I'm... sorry?" he ventured.

I rolled my eyes. "Right... well, continue. And, when did the spirit of the puzzle start talking to you again?" This is a new... puzzle, fuck the expression, to figure out. That spirit may have given Yuugi and Anzu his blessing, but he wasn't at the wedding. He hasn't been around...

But Yuugi shook his head and stood up, looking down at me. He sighed. "I can't... I'm sorry. Ryou-kun, don't get involved with the spirit any more than you have to, I did once and you know how it turned out, well I guess you don't really know but I don't... there's... Ryou-kun, I have to go!"

He fairly scooted away and looked like he was about to split. Maybe the spirit of the puzzle is on to him- or else he's just constipated. Heh.

I feel like I should do something more. He's not such a bad little bastard in the end, after all. Just manages to fuck up, but then that's a common symptom around me. "I'll walk you out," I said with a final kind of tone.

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Why do I almost hate him now? I can barely even remember how I was his friend when we were young. He gets on my nerves, so annoying that it stirs up some pretty violent imaginings.

But aside from that... I wonder what more Yuugi was trying to tell me. He called my bluff and he was right- I really _don't _know if there was any hot, steaming smut going on with those two- I winced at the mental image. I don't know much- more than the Friendship train, though, because of Yami.

Yuugi would die if he knew how much Yami can pry into his life without even trying. I never encouraged him, but spirits would do those shadow realm things. Now that I think about it, maybe it's not such a surprise that Yami didn't react to all that. He sought it out, after all.

So Yuugi and his yami were in love. And it didn't work out. Yuugi went a little crazy there, for a bit, but he pulled through like he always does.

Kind of like how I feel like I'm going crazy some of the time recently- except Yuugi actually was. He... well, Yami said he couldn't handle the dualism? I don't even know what he means by _that_. I guess it takes an odd duck to fall for a metaphysical reality.

Unlike Yuugi, I don't mind going crazy. I pretty much decided on that this past week. I think I got to that conclusion with Yami's help... unless, like Yuugi is accusing, he "helped" me without my realizing it... I've always been a little more out of reality than Yuugi. Jesus, though, I think I know my own yami pretty well.

Yami Yuugi left Domino. I haven't seen back or front of him for three years... If he's even alive. I marvled at how Yuugi could possibly survive without a darker half. I know I couldn't.

But our spirits are different.

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Yuugi got into his pink sports car and looks up. I'm trying not to smile, but that thing just kills me- it's perfect for him and the other half of the lovebird pair. Kaiba does some good things once in a while.

"I'm sorry this didn't work out," he said. He did sound apologetic.

"I'm sorry you had to waste your time driving up here," I said, "when a phone conversation would suffice. Perhaps you'll learn the meaning of 'no' now." Ah, right on target. Four years ago he would have pulled the tears act if someone said something that "mean" to him.

He shook his head. "I don't want to do this," he says. What, does he expect me to hop in the car with him? "But maybe it's for the best, somehow..."

"That's the spirit," I said sarcastically. I almost wanted to add something more encouraging, but my pride stopped me from stooping that low. I settled for waving at him pointedly.

Yuugi grinned- it looked a little forced. "I'll see you in the future, Bakura-kun?" he called as he started the engine. He shifted back and then slowly started down the street.

I shook my head at him, grinning to myself. "Sayonara, Moutou," I told him.

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**A/N:** You probably noticed that I figured out a way to make paragraph breaks that Document manger actually accepts! Yay! That thing is driving me crazy. It's reading my word counts wrong and chopping things off. X (

Uh-oh. Ryou's turning into kinda a dark bastard. _Must... write... happy... ending..._

Ok-** important**- I always thought that "sayonara" just meant goodbye, but I was recently told that you only say that if you never plan to see the person again in this lifetime. If you have any idea if that's correct (or not) please tell me, because I plan to write a one-shot about it!

XD Yeah, another story soon. Like, in the next month. Awesomeness.


	6. Ending up the hero

**A/N:** This is it- this is it, isn't it, the end. _Not_ a magnificently long chapter as I was planning- sorry, but I couldn't just think of enough to say that didn't look kind of... redundant... Er, what am I going on about? You want to read the story!

-

**Chapter 6:** Ending up the inane, insane hero

-

From then on, I didn't hear for Yuugi for a week. Then another one passed without a call, and then months went by. I think, then that he had really learned to give me up, and he had told the others to do the same.

The part of me that was still my boyhood self wished him well.

-

I dragged myself home one day after a long haul of classes, and all I wanted to do was collapse on my bed before I had to get out for my evening library clerk job. I opened the door and suddenly I was pushed outside again by Yami.

"Go away!" he told me.

So I got kicked out of my own house. It's times like these when I reconsidered my decision of staying with him. Since I'm not much for bloody confrontations when I'm down, though, I wandered down to the neighborhood park and sat myself down on a bench to wait for Yami to get over whatever was stuck in him...

"Hikari!" I felt myself being slapped awake. Yami was standing beside me with a frantic look in his eyes.

I blinked. "Did I fall asleep?" I asked.

He pulled me up. "Idiot hikari," he said, "what the hell did you do that for? I didn't tell you to go kill yourself, for Ra's sake! Your fingers are fuckin' blue!"

Ah, shit. I looked down- he was right. Even medical laypeople know that blue means frostbite or something just as deadly. I had to get inside. Luckily, Yami was on the same track because I was already being _dragged_ home, treated to a stream of muttered curses as we went. When we were finally inside, Yami laid me down on my bed and looked at a loss. "I don't know what to do about this," he said. "Idiot Japanese, all this.... snow..."

"Ice," I told him. When I walked into the kitchen to get some, I caught a glimpse of something gold on the table. I walked over to inspect it. It was a gold protective pendant, teardrop shaped with some replication of a carving or scroll inside.

"It's not a replication," Yami said gruffly. He scowled. "I was going to wrap it."

"What's this inside?" I asked.

He smiled. "By the top is Hathor- she can also be a goddess of foreign things... I was pretty foreign back then. In the center is Seth, god of chaos..."

"I know, I know," I interrupted. "What about the hieroglyphs?"

"No idea," Yami said. "I can't read them."

"I would have thought you would pick one of the lords of death to protect me," I commented.

"I would never," he growled. "I have no respect for those who are beyond fighting me back. So... you like it? Or what?"

Right- tomb robber. I just grinned to myself as I fetched the ice and rubbed it down my hands, letting Yami save some face. He rushed back over to me when I cried out at my ten burning fingers.

Yami can be almost awkwardly sweet- hell, a year ago I would have thought I was crazy if I called him that. But he's got a pretty good memory for everyday things, better than mine, so he remembered things like my twenty-first birthday.

I turned twenty a year ago around the time that Yuugi and Anzu got married, I graduated to the next level in my courses and my life started to fall apart for the last time- because _that_ time, Yami helped me pick up the pieces. It's not like he's sweetness and light, nothing like that- I'd know there was _really_ something wrong if he was! He can still be an ass when he feels like it.

He just loves to provoke me, I know. I think he likes the way we bicker- almost like an old couple. We fight continuously, almost, over everything from my daily life- he thinks I get out too much- to the weather because I love going out in the snow and he thinks I'll freeze some important parts off. Heh. Guess he won that one.

But he's nice. When he feels like it. Just like everyone else in the world, I guess.

-

My life continued to pass idyllically. No matter what happened in the world outside, in my world there was just the same familiar routine: wake up, go to school, go home, be with Yami, go to sleep; repeat. Go shopping or to other places only as necessary. So I found myself living more in the spirit realm with Yami than in the world that I was born in.

Then, one day, Yami said, "I didn't want you to be like me."

I thought it sounded familiar, until I realized it was the phrase that he did-or-didn't want me to hear when he said it so many months ago, after one of our last fights. I didn't want to know what he meant, not if it would disturb the little peace we had between us. But he persisted.

-

"You turned out just like me," Yami said regretfully. I was stretched out on my mattress while he rubbed my back. I made a noncommittal sound without turning around.

"I never was around people much," said Yami, sounding almost like an old sage about to tell his life story. "Back in my life, I was never around people too much. There were... qualities... about me, which led people to naturally seek other friends. After my family died, there was no one interested enough to learn about me. And, I was so prideful that I never let myself show any interest in them."

"I'm the same way," I commented. "But... I think there's something about us that distances people?"

"Our beautiful looks, must be," Yami said sarcastically, and I laughed.

"Seriously, hikari..." he stared off into space for a while and stopped his fingers' movements on my back. I nudged my body against him impatiently and he started. "You know I... you chose to be with me, right?"

"No, I just like telling people off," I said as I sat up. He looked... repentant... if such a quality could be applied to someone like him. I kissed him gently on the nose. Yami, startled, eyed the kissed spot, giving him a cross-eyed look. I giggled at that.

"Don't giggle," he said impatiently. "It makes you sound like a girl."

But then he smiled and I knew he didn't mean anything by it- eh, he was probably right. So I kissed him again, on the mouth this time, and he took the opportunity to pull me down on top of him. My shirt was already gone from when he had been giving me a massage, and I took the chance to return the favor.

"Are you really a virgin?" I blurted out as he adjusted himself on the floor. He gave me an annoyed look. "Yes, I am, but you won't know it," he said. I think I'm improving on his sense of humor.

I think if anyone saw us now, it'd be strange. They'd see me lying on the floor, grasping for some unknown disembodied figure. But my mind and his are in the spirit realm by now, where physical constraints don't matter- and we can each have our own bodies.

It's wonderful.

-

So I'll continue on like this. In the modern village, there's no one around to wonder why this quiet boy has such a shadow of a life- why he spends his time alone and talks to himself.

But I was never that attached to my sanity, anyway. All the world of shadow dealings, as strange and hideous as they might be- it's a more comforting resting place than the "real" earth that I inhabited for twenty-odd years. The shadows of the dead are better company to me than any friends I may have made there.

I was hardly happy then- and now whenever I can be alone and be in my mind, I'm happy. Take my sanity or my soul, as long as I can be with Yami. I'll make it work.

After all, everyone should get to be the hero of his own life story.

-

**The End.**

-

**A/N:** Er... (glances around)... how was that? It _didn't_ turn out nice and happy (well, kind of, maybe, depending on your point of view) and it didn't turn out very!dark like I thought it would, either. It really didn't turn out like much I was thinking of at all. Well, I'll see if people like it (sweatdrop).

Actually, it sucks. So feckin' cliché- I can't believe it took, what, 3 weeks to come up with that? Urgh.

Yeah.

THANK-YOU!!! Thank-you. Your kind (and occasionally helpful!) reviews actually finished the story, because I wouldn't have finished it otherwise. So thanks a bundle and fond huggles to you all! (huggles readers).

Now listen up- IMPORTANT there is a SEQUEL to this story that is on right now! I uploaded it as the same time as this chapter. It is called "**Love**", which you should be able to search for or find on my user profile. It's not a usual sequel per-se, it's from Yami no Bakura's POV and is a one-shot. So check that out, I think it turned out pretty well! Once again, **"Love"**. For a list of upcoming fics, check my profile.

Comments and critiques _much_ appreciated! Ja ne!


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